Peking University, Apr 19th, 2015: On April 1st, 2015, the award ceremony of the Sir Martin Wood China Prize was held on the opening ceremony of the 14th National Seminar of Low Temperature Physics. The inspectors finally decided on two researchers as the prize-winners. They were Li Shiyan from Fudan University and Wang Jian from Peking University. Zhao Zhongxian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, hosted the ceremony.
(Wang Jian 2nd/left; Zhang Peng, the general manager of Oxford Instruments in China, 1st/left; Zhao Zhongxian 1st/right; Li Shiyan 2nd/right)
Dr. Jian Wang is awarded 2015 Sir Martin Wood China Prize for Research of Physical Science in recognition of outstanding achievements on the study of interface-enhanced superconductivity at 2D limit and exploration of topological superconductivity. His achievements include providing the very first direct evidence of electrical transport and Meissner effect, proving that one unit cell thick (1-UC) FeSe thin film on the STO substrate is the thinnest high-temperature superconductor currently discovered and its superconductivity shows a magnificent increase than those for bulk FeSe. This work, demonstrating the 1-UC FeSe/STO is the thinnest high Tc superconductor, may pave the way to enhancing and tailoring superconductivity by interface engineering. His team was the first to verify the new manmade graphene-like silylene-structured 2-D superconducting crystal: the superconducting transition temperature of two-atomic-layer Ga film with graphene-like structure on wide band-gap semiconductor GaN substrate, up to 5.4 K, exceeds that of material stable phase. This work offers a new platform to study two-dimensional (2D) superconductivity in metal-semiconductor heterostructures. They also discovered the superconductivity induced by hard point contact, revealing the possibility of topological superconductor on the basis of the systematic study on the property of monocrystal transportation of high mobility 3-D Dirac semimetal Cd3As2.
Wang Jian graduated from the Physics Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He studied with Academician Xue Qikun and received his doctorate in condensed matter physics. From 2006 to 2010, he studied for postdoctor in Department of Physics and Center for Nanoscience in Pennsylvania State University in cooperation with Academician Moses Chan. After that, he worked as a research associate in the nanoscience center. In 2010 he began serving as a researcher and a doctorial supervisor in Center for Quantum Materials in Peking University. He was selected in the first “National Project for One Thousand Outstanding Young Scientists” in the next year. Then, he worked in China full time. In 2012, Wang Jian was selected as the principal for the first project of young scientists in the Ministry of Science and Technology as well as getting support from NSFC.
(the honor certificate)
Background Information:
The Sir Martin Wood China Prize was set up by the Oxford Institude to find and prize young scientists in China, who have made great breakthroughs under the conditions of low temperature or high-intensity magnetic field. It is awarded every two years for one to three people. The total amount of bonus is ￥100,000. Other international prizes similar to it include Nicholas Kurti, Lee Osheroff Richardson and Sir Martin Wood Prize in Japanese.
At the first opennig ceremony of Nationl Seminar of Low Temperature Physics, Sir Martin Wood China Prize was awarded to Professor Wang Yayu, from Tsinghua University and Associate Researcher He Ke, from the Physics Research Institude of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to honor their splendid achievements in topological insulator and quantum anomalous Hall Effect.
Written by: Fu Guirong
Edited by: Choisum Kwok
Source: PKU News (Chinese)
